India has moved additional troops along its northern border as it prepares for an extended conflict with China, after several rounds of talks failed to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.
China has already placed about 5,000 soldiers and armored vehicles within its side of the disputed border in the Ladakh region, an Indian government official said, asking not to be identified, citing rules.
India is adding a similar number of troops as well as artillery guns along the border to fend off the continuing incursions by the Chinese army, the official said.
Photo: AFP
The standoff began on May 5, when troops clashed on the banks of Pangong Tso — a glacial lake at 4,267m in the Tibetan plateau — leaving scores of soldiers on both sides injured. Since then, there has been a steady buildup of troops amid continuing face-offs.
Diplomats in New Delhi and Beijing have begun talks after negotiations between Indian and Chinese military officials on Friday and Saturday last week brought no results, the official said.
China’s move to step up incursions at two locations along the 3,488km undemarcated border is a deviation from its earlier attempts to gain territory after the two nations fought a war in 1962, the officials said.
US President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Wednesday that he had offered to mediate.
There was no immediate response from India or China.
Beijing was committed to safeguarding peace and stability in the border areas, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) said in a regular briefing to the media on Wednesday, adding that the two countries have good border-related mechanisms and communications channels.
“The realization of ‘Dragon and Elephant dancing together’ is the only right choice for China and India, which serves the fundamental interests of our two countries and two peoples,” Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong (孫衛東) said in an interaction with students, according to a statement released on the embassy’s Web site on Wednesday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday discussed the stand-off with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval , Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat and chiefs of its three armed services. The meeting centered around options available to India, and it was decided to go the diplomatic route while maintaining a tough military posture at the border.
“Talks are on at various levels to resolve the issue,” said S. L. Naramsimhan, member of India’s National Security Advisory Board, which advises the prime minister’s office. “India will defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity and at the same time make all efforts to maintain peace and tranquility along the India-China boundary.”
The current tensions with India might have been triggered by the completion of a road and bridge in the Galwan sector in Ladakh, the Indian government official said.
“The Chinese have been expanding presence in this region for a long time, yet after all these decades, India hasn’t found a way to deal with China’s gradual expansion,” said Phunchok Stobdan, former Indian diplomat and author of The Great Game in the Buddhist Himalayas. “The issue is why is China doing this and why now?”
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the